'Unthinkable': Trump FTC chair shuts down public comments on corporate pricing tactics

[justaprogressive]

U.S. President Donald Trump's Federal Trade Commission chair began his stint at the helm of the key agency this week by shutting down requests for public comment on corporate surveillance pricing and other exploitative tactics that were a focus of the FTC under the leadership of Lina Khan.

Shortly after taking over as FTC chair earlier this week, Andrew Ferguson declared that "DEI is over" at the agency and demanded a swift vote on a motion giving him sweeping authority to "comply with President Trump's orders ending DEI across the federal government."

Meanwhile, with no such fanfare, Ferguson shuttered FTC requests for information and public comments on corporate mergers and acquisitions, "protecting workers from illegal business practices," "predatory pricing," and "surveillance pricing practices," which refer to companies' use of personal data to set individualized prices.
Democratic FTC commissioners expressed alarm over Ferguson's early actions and said they're a telling indication of his priorities.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-corporate-pricing/

[LearnedHand]

1. I guess this means the Kroger/Albertsons merger will now be a go

This hits home hard because they are the ONLY two major grocery outlets that aren't Walmart where I live. Kroger already killed the little independent grocery chains and immediately enshittified their stores and "customer service." My protest grocery shopping is mostly via Albertsons, supplemented with Whole Foods and the like.

[dalton99a]

2. One way to make inflation vanish